OK, I’ll admit it. I hate to wait for my food, my purchase, my friends, or the phone to ring. I want it to happen now, not later.
Could be my Driver personality.
Could be I had to wait as a kid.
Could be I am just full of myself at times.
Doesn’t matter.
Today I’m talking about how we Continue reading I Hate Patience – Especially In Marketing! »
As the economy has gotten stronger, I’ve been called on to share the Bob Phibbs Experience with more retailers, service providers and luxury brands with average tickets in the thousands.
Why is that?
Because many were frustrated with the “old school” selling about manipulation and maneuvers. Continue reading Retail Consultant Tip: What’s a Customer’s Buying Cycle? »
Maybe I’m spoiled…
When I lived in Long Beach, there was a garden center called Park. You could walk in there and six or seven people were behind the register, approaching, to the side, or in front of the counter.
And when they saw you, they came over to see what /how they could help you. They then took you to what you needed. They suggested alternatives. They always asked while ringing up the sale, “And the planting mix for that?” and offered plastic for the car so the dirt and water from the pots wouldn’t ruin your trunk or seats.
It was a great experience.
It was busy, fully stocked and wait times were short. I spent thousands creating my dream gardens. They were so busy they were purchased by Armstrong garden centers who kept that tradition alive.
Now I live in upstate NY… Continue reading Is Your Nursery Garden Center Doomed? »
It’s the end of September and all eyes are looking towards holiday sales numbers. Will they be too little? Too late? Or just right?
I’ve researched the media going back over ten years and one thing is for certain:
When you read a newspaper, retail holiday sales will suck.
When you turn on the TV, retail holiday sales will suck.
When you read a magazine, retail holiday sales will suck.
How do I know that’s what you’ll see, hear, or read?
Because the evidence shows a pattern to these stories which appear each year.
It doesn’t matter if it was holiday 2002 – the year after 9/11.
Or holiday 2007, the height of the real estate boom.
Or just last year, the messages are all the same: retailers will be getting coal for Christmas. Even when 10 out of those 11 years sales actually increased.
That’s right. Increased… Continue reading Retail Holiday Sales Predictions 2010 »
You can’t open a newspaper, turn on the TV, or go online without seeing a story of a venerable business calling it quits. Whether it’s the hardware store outside of Denver Colorado http://www.denverpost.com/economy/ci_14321403 or the gift store in Ann Arbor Michigan http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/the-end-of-an-era—the-john-leidy-shop-closes-after-58-years-in-business/.
Newspapers love to do these types of stories about family businesses, that prided themselves on longevity, have chosen to close their doors.
That is foolish.
Frequently cited reasons are (in no particular order,) the economy, shoppers trading down, trading area not as vibrant as it once was, big boxes, and online shoppers.
Are you looking at the landscape for the luxury consumer and it doesn’t look like it did even five years ago? Have you dumbed down your offerings to try to meet a price point at the expense of more profitable items? Are customers just not coming in anymore? There’s hope, but you have to work at it.
If your store has been around for generations, you have an abundance of goodwill in your community. That can be leveraged.
As an example, if you are a jewelry store, all those rings, watches and graduation gifts count for a lot, yet most jewelry stores are a time machine backward. Here’s what I mean.
When I go to jewelry store in 2010 it pretty much looks the way they did when I first visited them in the 1960s. Jewelry stores aren’t known for carrying a big retail footprint so why do jewelers want to segment every customer to one or two display cases?
For example, why am I still asked the “Pinpoint” approach? You know, “Can help you find something?” Then taken to the one display case of offerings? I may only see 10% of their offerings because their salesclerk has decided it was most efficient for me to look at what I came in for, rather than exploring the whole store. That’s a huge lost opportunity. You don’t know who I may need to buy something for some day.
The best retailers display multiple items together so customers are intrigued to stop, consider and browse. That means changing the way you display things so more of your store is shown in more places. Yes, you’ll have to hear employees say, “They keep moving things on me.” To them I say, “Deal with it if you want a job.”
The other approach I call the “Museum.” That’s where the employee says, “Look around and let me know if you’d like to see anything.” That expects customers to do all the work. Guess what, they won’t and will leave.
With Facebook and all the other social media sites, it is clear customers are responding to friends and trusting their advice. If you’re still expecting customers to come to the mount and have you efficiently explain a setting, you’re missing it. That means changing the way you approach selling your fine jewelry.
Both of those approaches are conducted behind large glass counters where the employee is literally the keeper of the keys. I call it storming the castle. Major banks, hotels and retailers have cut their counters in half, now more like desks than anything. The days of rows of cases that isolate are over. That means changing the way you setup your store.
Along with that is the approach many boutique retailers are using to sell from the side, rather than in front of the customer. It would mean unlocking a case and coming around the counter to build trust with the customer. Not hard in theory to do but try it, it your employees will fight the change.
To compete in 2010 you’ve got to ask the hard questions and then find the answers. Generations of Americans have owned their own jewelry, hardware, and gift stores and generations to come will as well. But it’s not going to get easier – you can’t blame someone else for you not being successful. You have to question. You have to think. And yes you have to be willing to risk trying new things.
As your competitors shutter their doors and online sites proliferate, it doesn’t have to be you that goes out of business.
It does if you’re not willing to change. And maybe that’s what this article is really all about: the willingness to change, to risk; to realize we’re not going back to the go-go 80s the flamboyant 90s or the home-equity fueled 2000′s. Know whatever future we have in retail will be determined by people like you who look at the way they’ve always done business and say, “how about if we…?” They don’t take the easy way out, they don’t leave their community hanging, and they don’t find the media to announce, “We’re outta here,” but rather, “We’re here to stay.”
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Best-selling author and speaker Bob Phibbs has helped thousands of independent businesses compete and has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur magazine. His new book, The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business (Wiley & Sons) has received advance praise from both Inc. magazine and USA Today and can be ordered at http://www.retaildoc.com/guide.
©Bob Phibbs 2010
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